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This fall there’s an amazing assortment of stylish jackets in shops. There are lots of colours, textures and feminine details, perfect for keeping you nice and toasty and looking extremely fashion forward!
I’m loving the shorter sleeves, the frilly details, the bright colours, and the fun buttons.
Here are my top picks from Anthroplogie. The grey/brown one is Taikonhu ($176 Cdn), the orange one is Leifsdottir ($589 Cdn), and the white one is Fleur Wood ($165 Cdn).
It’s easy to imagine yourself walking amongst the falling leaves on a crisp fall day in one of these.
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Now that I have my ring I’m starting to let people know about this exciting event. For some reason the sequence that I told people was very important to me. I wanted to tell my aunt and uncle first, and then good friends, and then I would be comfortable to wear it to work and have everyone inquiring.
So on Friday night we went out for dinner with my aunt and uncle. We got there a bit before to make some arrangements and surprise them with our news. I was a bit nervous, because my aunt and uncle have only met my fiance one time. I wasn’t sure what they were going to say. But it all worked out wonderfully.
When everyone was sitting at our table I cued the waiter to bring over the champagne. My aunt was watching everything and was wondering what was going on…but somehow resisted asking what we were doing – I don’t know how she contained herself because she usually wants to know everything!
So while the waiter was pouring our champagne I slipped my hands under the table and took my ring from my purse, and slipped it on my hand. When it was time to says cheers I said “Let’s celebrate!”. My aunt asked “What are we celebrating?” to which I responded “Well, what looks different about me?”. My aunt couldn’t figure it out…and she was so anxious to know what I was talking about. She just wanted me to hurry up and tell her whatever it was I was going to tell her! I think she even said to me “Oh, get on with it…what is IT?”
Then she looked down at my hand and saw a sparkly ring on my ring finger.
And then she screamed.
It was so exciting to share the news with my family and see how happy they were for us. My aunt kept on saying “This is exciting, I’m so excited!”
We called my cousin’s and told them, and I couldn’t really hear what was going on because my cousin’s wife was screaming so loud. And then her kids were so excited their mother was screaming that they started screaming too!
It was such a lovely way to start spreading the word. It couldn’t have gone better. But of course, this is only the beginning!
Image Credits: Blue Mountain Cards
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Something very wonderful, exciting and beautiful is brewing in my life – I’m engaged!
I’m sure there are lots of questions like “how did it happen?”, “how did he propose?” “did you get a ring?”, so I thought I’d just head those all off.
Here’s the engagement story:
For me I knew he was “the one” very early on but I needed to pass some milestones together before making it official. I needed him to meet my aunt and uncle (who are like second parents to me), I needed to meet his parents, and I needed some time to pass together so I knew it wasn’t just a new thing, but everyday love.
Over the past few months we’ve passed all these important milestones and as the time keeps moving on we feel closer and closer together, we become more and more connected and I can’t imagine spending my days without him. He’s my everyday bread and butter.
We’ve done some very fancy things together like going to top notch restaurants and 5 star resorts, we’ve done some very basic things together like renovate my apartment and sort through his tax receipts(fun, I know), and we’ve taken long trips together and endured everyday hardships with work stress and other little life tensions. And through it all we were growing together, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
I wasn’t surprised when he proposed. He’d given me some hints that he was ready to get married. He had even asked me casually a few times if I wanted to get married…he would just slip it into conversations with things like “when do you think you’d like to get married?” and “where do you want to get married?”. One time we were skipping rocks on the lake and he asked me point blank “will you marry me?” but I didn’t take it that seriously. We had only been dating six months and I wasn’t at that point yet so I answered “in the future, yes”.
In total he asked me three times before I accepted his proposal! It’s a good thing he’s persistent!
The last time he asked me I knew there was something different. We had been together for ten months, and I’d met his family and he’d met some of mine. A good amount of time passed so I knew it wasn’t just a fun new thing. We’d even traveled together and spent every minute together for ten days straight and not made each other crazy. Quite the opposite actually, we had a lovely time together and became the very best of friends.
So after all these events I realized this was my man. He is sweet, kind, caring, responsible, hardworking, funny and is all around lovely. After asking me two times to get married I couldn’t resist his third proposal.
We were at Langdon Hall having a very romantic last minute getaway. We had spent a wonderful day and evening together and just relaxed and did romantic things, like sitting in front of the pond watching the fish swim by while holding hands, or napping on the grass together underneath a tree with a light breeze blowing on us. It was just perfect. We woke up the next day and were chatting in bed. After a few minutes of chatting away he looked over at me and asked “Will you marry me?”, and without a blink I said “Yes!” It was a wonderful moment. Even though it was 9am we opened some celebration wine.
Since it wasn’t a planned event he didn’t have a ring or anything. But he’d done his research. He’d read online that it’s very important to get a ring that you know your lady wants, instead of what you THINK she wants. So he’d been collecting information along the way to figure out what I’d like. But he wasn’t totally confident. So, instead of proposing with a ring, he decided that he’d let me pick out my own ring after we were engaged. And that’s exactly what we did. We went to the jewelery store and had a custom ring made based on an earring that I liked.
It took about 6 weeks to get the ring, and I didn’t want to tell anyone I was engaged until I had my ring. I knew the first question that every girl was going to ask me would be “What does your ring look like?” I wanted to have a ring to show them.
So last Tuesday my ring was finally ready. We went out to celebrate at a fancy restaurant we’d had our third date at. The anticipation was killing me. I was so excited to see it, but also didn’t want to open it right away…I wanted to enjoy the excitement! So we had a glass of champagne and the lovely package from the jeweler made its way over to my side of the table. And then we had our appetizer and the package was right next to me. When we had our main course I’d opened the lovely letter my fiance had written to me. After our tea I finally opened the package.
It’s beautiful. My ring is exactly what I wanted.
But an engagement ring isn’t something that carries no weight. It’s a huge deal! So instead of focusing on the ring I kept on telling my fiance how much I loved him and how excited I was about this step in our lives. He thought I wasn’t that excited about the ring because I wasn’t focusing on it, I was focusing on him and us.
Of course I’m super excited about the ring! It’s gorgeous! But even now when I look at it I’m excited about the idea of sharing our lives together.
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This week has been a hectic week for pretty much everyone I know. Everyone seems stressed and bothered and caught up in moments of tension. So, maybe it’s time to step back and think about some of the wonderfully simple things that we enjoy in life.
1. a sunny day
2. a delicious meal
3. a great glass of wine
4. a good chat with a close friend
5. a long walk
6. a moment of inspiration
7. a relaxing afternoon at a local café
After thinking about all those lovely things I feel more relaxed already!
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Through all the tough times in life there is one thing that can be your saviour; dreams.
Whenever you are feeling down, blue, or broken, take a trip in your mind into your dream life. If you feel lonely and like you’ll never meet anyone turn that feeling into how you picture your life being shared with your dream partner. If you are overloaded at work daydream about the feeling of accomplishment you’ll have once you’ve conquered all your jobs and won awards for your heroic efforts. Daydream about any and everything.
You’ll project that hopeful/wonderful feeling into your future, and respond in a cool and calm way to any situation at hand.
Once you start to see positive results, I’m sure you’ll feel better about the situation.
And you’ll be that much closer to turning your dreams into a reality.
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Fall is not usually a welcome season up North – it means a chilly winter is just around the corner.
But this fall seems to be different.
Why?
Red is one of the top pick colours of the season, and that means bright sunny red clothes will be all over the city heating up the streets.
Here’s my favourite look for this fall – a bright red winter jacket.
How fun! I feel warm just looking at it.
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For many girls chatting with guys is a very scary thing to do. Help is here! With these simple tricks you can chit chat away with anyone, make connections and get yourself closer to finding the man of your dreams.
1. Start where you are comfortable. If you are shy and talking to strange men is hard for you don’t despair, you can start in your comfort zone. If talking with new men is a huge step start talking with new women first. Once you see how easy it is use the same techniques to start talking to men.
2. Ask questions. I used to have a hard time chatting with strangers and then I figured out a little secret – just ask a question! At a coffee line ask if the person has tried a new drink. At the park as the cute guy what kind of dog he has. If you seem interested people will be open to chatting about anything.
3. Don’t forget to be polite and friendly. If you are uncomfortable and find yourself shooting random questions so you can start a conversation step back, take a deep breath, and don’t forget your p’s and q’s. You’re doing this exercise to meet your match, so treat the person as a friend and act natural and polite.
4. Use positive body language. Smile, have your body facing towards them, keep your stance open and stop fidgeting. There are many ways that we communicate with people, so make sure you’re giving all the signs that you’re enjoying the chat. If it’s uncomfortable at first try it out and you’ll see how easy it is.
5. Act interested in the topic. If you have had success chatting with strangers you’ll notice that the more you seem interested in their topic, and the more positive words you infuse the conversation with, the more guys will want to chat. It’s fun to talk to someone who wants to talk to you and who makes you feel good and interesting. It’s not fun chatting with someone who is asking questions and then doesn’t listen to the answer.
6. Don’t let the conversation die. I’ve made so many introductions between people and put out ice breakers for them only to see them let the conversation totally die. In one instance I introduced a girl to one of my friends from high school. I mentioned how they worked in similar industries – finance. He was in mutual funds and she was in currency exchange. Instead of talking more about it she let the conversation die only to say “Those aren’t similar industries”. Later she was talking to me telling me how cute he was! Remember, stay positive and interested and you’ll find many similarities, even if he’s a farmer and you are a salon owner. Look for commonalities instead of differences.
7. Don’t worry about not looking your sexiest. This is probably to your advantage. You look friendlier and more approachable. People will respond better to you, so instead of using this as an excuse to hold back, think of it as a great time to chat away with strangers
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Recently while cruising the department store for new facial moisturizers I was let in on a big beauty secret. It seems that big cosmetics companies that have men’s skin care lines are exactly the same as women’s lines, but they usually have SPF, and they are CHEAPER!
This is great news for all women – now you can moisturize, protect your skin from sun damage and save your money!
My personal favourite is the Clinique M protect. The moisturizer is exactly the same as the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, but it has an SPF 21, and is $3 cheaper at $28 vs. $31 for the women’s product.
Save away sisters!
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When I have a special date I have this ritual that I love to follow.
I draw a bath, sip some wine, put on some good music, and really take my time getting ready.
I pick my clothes, change a few times, and then maybe change a few times more.
A few hours later when my boyfriend picks me up I feel totally refreshed and like I just spent some quality time doing silly, girly stuff.
When I talk to my girlfriends it seems like everyone has funny rituals they follow to get ready.
What’s yours?
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It’s official…the weather is getting cooler, the evenings are shorter, and it is time to start saving.
After having fun all summer long and living a carefree existence it is time to buckle down and save up. First step – set up an appointment with a banker and come up with a plan for RRSP savings.
Having been a student for so long I have always been able to use my tuition to provide me with a substantial tax return. Now, the tuition credits have all been used up and I need alternative ways to getting a good tax return and saving my money.
I love saving money and watching it grow. I find it so rewarding and I feel like I’m making some very good choices in my life.
Onwards and upwards!
